Kevin R. Dixon, Ph.D., is vice president and executive director of the Digital Safety Research Institute at UL Research Institutes. He brings more than two decades of experience building research organizations and turning artificial intelligence research into real-world practice.

Dixon leads the Digital Safety Research Institute’s work to understand and reduce the risks that AI and other digital technologies pose to people. He co-created Cognitive Foundry, an open-source machine-learning library adopted by Netflix, IBM Watson, and other organizations. He also helped create the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, the federal government’s flagship AI research effort. This experience helps ensure safety research reaches the people and systems that need it.

Prior to joining UL Research Institutes, Dixon served as director of the Artificial Intelligence Mission Center at Sandia National Laboratories, where he built a research organization of more than 200 people with an annual portfolio of more than $200 million. As founding chair of Sandia’s AI Board of Directors, he guided AI strategy, policy, talent, and infrastructure for the 16,000-person laboratory. He previously founded Sandia’s Mission Analytics Group and Special Analytic Initiatives Department.

Dixon’s honors include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Outstanding Service Award and an R&D 100 Award as co-inventor of SWiCK Zoom. He is a named inventor on five issued patents and has published more than 40 scholarly papers. He serves on the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission.

Dixon earned a B.S. and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.